What are SMART Goals for Students How to Set them

What are SMART Goals for Students How to Set them What are SMART Goals for Students | Read now!6 min read Read ­ing Time: 5 min ­utesWe all have dif ­fer ­ent fields in life where we would like to grow, be it get ­ting a bet ­ter job, improv ­ing our health or fin ­ish ­ing col ­lege. Unfor ­tu ­nate ­ly, most of us get thrown off course when we try to build a pro ­fes ­sion ­al as well as per ­son ­al growth plan. As a stu ­dent, it is impor ­tant to set SMART goals and pri ­or ­i ­tize them. It is nat ­ur ­al to think of our future as a sur ­plus of vague dreams. How ­ev ­er, this is not effec ­tive for your per ­son ­al devel ­op ­ment. This is why set ­ting SMART Goals for stu ­dentsis high ­ly rec ­om ­mend ­ed. Apart from this, smart goals help you keep track of your achieve ­ments. More ­over, as a stu ­dent, you can allo ­cate your pre ­cious time and resources effi ­cient ­ly. Many stu ­dents aim to get a lot done but actu ­al ­ly accom ­plish very less. Col ­lege stu ­dents fail to under ­stand that they must pic ­ture their future in the form of con ­crete goals. Under ­stand ­ing how to set SMART goals ear ­ly in life will enable them to use their time and resources pro ­duc ­tive ­ly. What Are SMART Goals for Students? From an aca ­d ­e ­m ­ic point of view, stu ­dents can improve their per ­for ­mance by being account ­able for their fail ­ure suc ­cess. In fact, stu ­dents expect to have a feel ­ing of suc ­cess and con ­fi ­dence for enhanced pro ­duc ­tiv ­i ­ty. Smart goals help achieve this feel ­ing as stu ­dents have a clear pic ­ture of their des ­ti ­na ­tion. Time man ­age ­ment is an essen ­tial ingre ­di ­ent to achieve suc ­cess in life. Click here to read more about time man ­age ­ment tips here! The smart in SMART goals is actu ­al ­ly an acronym. It stands for, Spe ­cif ­ic, Mea ­sur ­able, Attain ­able, Rel ­e ­vant, and Time-Based. Let’s under ­stand what they mean indi ­vid ­u ­al ­ly: 1. Specific Spe ­cif ­ic goals define clear ­ly what needs to be achieved in order for the goal to be accom ­plished. The more clear ­ly you define a goal, the less there is a chance for any mis ­in ­ter ­pre ­ta ­tion of it. Be it fin ­ish ­ing a paper, com ­pos ­ing a per ­son ­al state ­ment for an intern ­ship or com ­plet ­ing research for a larg ­er project, the more spe ­cif ­ic you get, the bet ­ter will be your long term results. A few exam ­ples of Spe ­cif ­ic goals for stu ­dents are: a) Write a research paper for the con ­fer ­ence. b) Write more papers. In this case, (a) is con ­sid ­ered to be a SMART goal because it clear ­ly spec ­i ­fies the goals in terms of what needs to be done to accom ­plish it. Where ­as (b) does not spec ­i ­fy any details. Mere ­ly writ ­ing more papers can not define what you plan to achieve but writ ­ing research papers for a con ­fer ­ence is more spe ­cif ­ic. 2. Measurable Mea ­sur ­able goals deter ­mine to quan ­ti ­fy the para ­me ­ter which needs to be ful ­filled in order to accom ­plish your goals. So to put this into per ­spec ­tive, eat ­ing healthy is not a mea ­sur ­able goal, but eat ­ing greens twice a day is. For exam ­ple, a) Fin ­ish read ­ing 12 books this year. b) Read more books. In this case, (a) is con ­sid ­ered to be a SMART goalbecause it quan ­ti ­fies the goal. Where ­as (b) is not mea ­sur ­able at all. 3. Attainable Set ­ting attain ­able goals means set ­ting goals that are real ­is ­tic in nature. Attain ­able goals uti ­lize your abil ­i ­ties and at the same time, are pos ­si ­ble to accom ­plish. So to set attain ­able goals, con ­sid ­er the avail ­abil ­i ­ty of resources, knowl ­edge as well as time and decide which goals are real ­is ­tic and plau ­si ­ble. For exam ­ple, a) Cycle 6km between home and cam ­pus every day b) Walk 50km every day In this case, (a) is an attain ­able goal because cycling 6km every day is achiev ­able. But (b) is a high ­ly unre ­al ­is ­tic goal because walk ­ing 50km every sin ­gle day is not pos ­si ­ble. 4. Relevant Goals need to be rel ­e ­vant to ensure they help you in achiev ­ing your ulti ­mate goal. In sim ­ple words, your goals should be rel ­e ­vant to what you are aim ­ing for in the big ­ger pic ­ture. Even if a goal might seem ben ­e ­fi ­cial, if the tim ­ing is not right, achiev ­ing it will add no ben ­e ­fit to your over ­all growth. For exam ­ple, stu ­dents might go to col ­lege with goals in mind that are influ ­enced by their par ­ents, not their own deci ­sion. That often results in them lack ­ing the moti ­va ­tion to take the required steps for ­ward. Instead, rel ­e ­vant goals will be if they took the time to fig ­ure out goals that felt per ­son ­al ­ly applic ­a ­ble to them. 5. Time-Based Time-Based goals spec ­i ­fy the time frame with ­in which the goal needs to be accom ­plished. This not only moti ­vates a per ­son to work hard ­er and meet the dead ­line, but also achieves the over ­all goal faster. For exam ­ple, a) Fin ­ish writ ­ing 10 papers in 4 weeks. b) Write more papers. In this case, (a) is a SMART goal because it spec ­i ­fies the time frame and puts a dead ­line for meet ­ing the tar ­get. Where ­as, (b) is nei ­ther defined nor time-based. How To Set SMART Goals? Despite its effi ­cien ­cy, imple ­ment ­ing SMART goals is one of the least used strate ­gies by stu ­dents and pro ­fes ­sion ­als. This is main ­ly because most peo ­ple are not aware of how to set SMART goals. As a stu ­dent, learn ­ing how to set SMART goals dur ­ing each term will help you in stay ­ing on top of your game and make the most of your edu ­ca ­tion. Here are a few tips relat ­ed to smart goals for stu ­dents. 1. Set a Goal for Grades in Each Class It goes with ­out say ­ing that stu ­dents want to strive to do their best in every class. How ­ev ­er, there are a num ­ber of fac ­tors that may impact how they per ­form in each course. Tak ­ing into account the sub ­ject and the lev ­el of the class,set a SMART goal for a grade you think you will earn for sure if you work hard. Then, spend a rea ­son ­able amount of time achiev ­ing this goal. 2. Create A Schedule â€" part of SMART Goals strategy Once you have fig ­ured out how to set SMART goals, it is easy to start work ­ing on them. How ­ev ­er, stay ­ing on track is much hard ­er than it appears to be. It is quite com ­mon for stu ­dents to lose their focus and find them ­selves less involved in their stud ­ies. To avoid such sit ­u ­a ­tions, it is bet ­ter to cre ­ate a sched ­ule and ensure you fol ­low it. A sched ­ule will define your goals and tar ­gets clear ­ly. Hence, you are less like ­ly to lose focus. 3. Regular Check-Ins: a SMART Goals example Goals can ­not be achieved overnight. It will take time to cross that fin ­ish line. And for that, the goals have to be worked on reg ­u ­lar ­ly and con ­sis ­tent ­ly. This is the rea ­son reg ­u ­lar check-ins need to be estab ­lished. It will ensure you are on track and mak ­ing progress in a steady man ­ner. 4. Celebrate Small Wins Last ­ly, no mat ­ter how small your achieve ­ments might be, learn to cel ­e ­brate! It is nor ­mal to cel ­e ­brate only when the main goal is accom ­plished. But acknowl ­edg ­ing small ­er wins will encour ­age you to work hard ­er. And also it will ensure you are going in the right direc ­tion. In sim ­ple words, it keeps your moti ­va ­tion lev ­els high. So the next time your brain won ­ders how to set SMART goals,just remem ­ber that set ­ting SMART goals is not that dif ­fi ­cult. All you need to do is fol ­low one step at a time, fill ­ing out one let ­ter of the acronym after the oth ­er. Do not put your ­self under the pres ­sure of get ­ting it right at the very first attempt. Try until you fig ­ure out what works best for your sit ­u ­a ­tion. Read also about team ­work skills. In addi ­tion to set ­ting up smart goals in life, stu ­dents must focus on work ­ing in teams to fos ­ter top lead ­er ­ship qual ­i ­ties which is essen ­tial for over ­all growth and suc ­cess. How to Set SMART GoalsSMART Goalswhat are smart goals